My younger sister Nicole drags herself into my room, lugging with her a large math text book for the second time this week. She sits down on my floor, and spreads the book and her notebook open for me to see, and begins hammering away with “I don’t know’s”. My sister and I are opposites when it comes to math, so helping her is always a challenge. It’s hard to respectfully discuss topics with your sibling when both of you are exhausted and frustrated and one of you isn’t understanding something, but somehow we always manage to end the studying peacefully. We have always used each other’s strengths – she helped me format and compose my first resume, and I usually help her with math and science homework. In many ways, it brings us closer as sisters, but it also helps us achieve what is academically expected of us: 100% effort, and hopefully good grades.
From an early age, my parents challenged me intellectually. When I was a kid my mom worked at our local library, and it became one of my favorite places. The librarians on the children’s floor loved me, because I would walk around for hours organizing the books alphabetically by author, then by title, and then by size. I learned to read at a fairly young age, and I read a lot of books out loud to my sister, but my favorite past time by far was puzzles. I liked conceptual puzzles, picture puzzles, math puzzles and word puzzles. Taking intellectual risks was something I gained knowledge and experience from, and it’s probably the reason I pushed myself outside my academic comfort zone as much as possible in high school.
Although my sister is my number one peer editor, I owe my productive work ethics to my mom, who taught me how to manage my time. For as long as I can remember, my parents have made me go to bed relatively early. In middle school, I would be doing homework in my room and as soon as nine ‘o’clock came around, I would have to start getting ready for bed, even if my homework wasn’t finished. I remember my mom coming in my room one night when I was in fifth grade; I was working on my science poster board and I had almost finished gluing everything on when she came in and told me to go to sleep. I remember begging her for ten more minutes – just to do my homework (nerd!). Although she let me have it that night, her relentless attitude that sleep should come before anything else has given me great time management skills. These were crucial for me in high school, especially during sports seasons.
During the soccer season, we had practice Monday through Friday from 3-5:30pm, and usually we had a game or two each week as well. Because I lived a half hour away from my school, I didn’t get home most nights until 6pm or later, at which time I had to eat dinner and shower. By the time I was settled in, it was already 7:30 or 8 and I had to start my homework. For six classes’ worth of homework, one or two hours was not nearly enough time to get everything finished for the next day, especially with the inevitability of procrastination. So I ended up doing all the homework I could on the bus rides home from soccer so that I could go to sleep early. I felt like I was working all the time, and although this left me frustrated, I always got a good night’s sleep, which prepared me for the next day’s adventures and kept me healthy.
To give you some background, my mom now works as a secretary for a research company in my town, and my dad works as a product manager for a software company. I’m not sure if it was my upbringing that caused me to fall in love with science, or just my natural interests, but by middle school I knew I wanted to pursue math and science in college. My parents supported my decision completely, and never doubted that I would do well in the field. During senior year, they encouraged me to apply for as many ‘women in STEM’ scholarships as possible to help pay for college, something I can’t regret.
I wouldn’t be enjoying my college career without the constant pushes and cheers I received from my parents over the years. They have made me an individual who is independent, communicates well, and works hard, and I am forever thankful for all that they have taught me.
My younger sister Nicole drags herself into my room, lugging with her a large math text book for the second time this week. She sits down on my floor, and spreads the book and her notebook open for me to see, and begins hammering away with “I don’t know’s”. My sister and I are opposites when it comes to math, so helping her is always a challenge. It’s hard to respectfully discuss topics with your sibling when both of you are exhausted and frustrated and one of you isn’t understanding something, but somehow we always manage to end the studying peacefully. We have always used each other’s strengths – she helped me format and compose my first resume, and I usually help her with math and science homework. In many ways, it brings us closer as sisters, but it also helps us achieve what is academically expected of us: 100% effort, and hopefully good grades.
From an early age, my parents challenged me intellectually. When I was a kid my mom worked at our local library, and it became one of my favorite places. The librarians on the children’s floor loved me, because I would walk around for hours organizing the books alphabetically by author, then by title, and then by size. I learned to read at a fairly young age, and I read a lot of books out loud to my sister, but my favorite past time by far was puzzles. I liked conceptual puzzles, picture puzzles, math puzzles and word puzzles. Taking intellectual risks was something I gained knowledge and experience from, and it’s probably the reason I pushed myself outside my academic comfort zone as much as possible in high school.
Although my sister is my number one peer editor, I owe my productive work ethics to my mom, who taught me how to manage my time. For as long as I can remember, my parents have made me go to bed relatively early. In middle school, I would be doing homework in my room and as soon as nine ‘o’clock came around, I would have to start getting ready for bed, even if my homework wasn’t finished. I remember my mom coming in my room one night when I was in fifth grade; I was working on my science poster board and I had almost finished gluing everything on when she came in and told me to go to sleep. I remember begging her for ten more minutes – just to do my homework (nerd!). Although she let me have it that night, her relentless attitude that sleep should come before anything else has given me great time management skills. These were crucial for me in high school, especially during sports seasons.
During the soccer season, we had practice Monday through Friday from 3-5:30pm, and usually we had a game or two each week as well. Because I lived a half hour away from my school, I didn’t get home most nights until 6pm or later, at which time I had to eat dinner and shower. By the time I was settled in, it was already 7:30 or 8 and I had to start my homework. For six classes’ worth of homework, one or two hours was not nearly enough time to get everything finished for the next day, especially with the inevitability of procrastination. So I ended up doing all the homework I could on the bus rides home from soccer so that I could go to sleep early. I felt like I was working all the time, and although this left me frustrated, I always got a good night’s sleep, which prepared me for the next day’s adventures and kept me healthy.
To give you some background, my mom now works as a secretary for a research company in my town, and my dad works as a product manager for a software company. I’m not sure if it was my upbringing that caused me to fall in love with science, or just my natural interests, but by middle school I knew I wanted to pursue math and science in college. My parents supported my decision completely, and never doubted that I would do well in the field. During senior year, they encouraged me to apply for as many ‘women in STEM’ scholarships as possible to help pay for college, something I can’t regret.
I wouldn’t be enjoying my college career without the constant pushes and cheers I received from my parents over the years. They have made me an individual who is independent, communicates well, and works hard, and I am forever thankful for all that they have taught me.